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Tuesday, May 5, 2015

ISIS Claims Responsibility for Garland Attack

The Islamic State terrorist group claimed its first attack on US soil, a shooting at an anti-Muslim event in Texas over the weekend showcasing cartoons mocking the Prophet [sic] Mohammed.

'Two of the soldiers of the caliphate executed an attack on an art exhibit in Garland, Texas, and this exhibit was portraying negative pictures of the Prophet Mohammed,' the jihadist group said through its Al Bayan radio station.

'We tell America that what is coming will be even bigger and more bitter, and that you will see the soldiers of the Islamic State do terrible things,' the group announced.

The attack was an abject failure--two terrorists armed with AK style rifles killed by a single police officer with a handgun. The only other person wounded--who was shot by the attackers--was release from the hospital within just an hour or two. About the same amount of time as to get a couple stitches.

But here is the more important question, at least for would-be terrorists: how does Allah supposedly reward failure? I understand that Allah is said to bless martyrs, and that the only better than the afterlife would be to return and die again as a martyr. And, notwithstanding the protestations in the prior article, they supposedly also get 72 virgins as wives. But the paradise awaiting the martyr is one of a bargain or exchange: the death as a martyr to advance Allah's cause in exchange the rewards promised. But does a terrorist that fails really a martyr? Does he (or she) have anything to exchange? The failed terrorist or suicide bomber didn't advance the cause of Allah. In fact, failures such as in Garland, merely strengthen the resolve of those whom Islam deems enemies. Thus, a failed martyr may actually hinder the cause of Islam. I don't see Allah as the type of being who would honor an exchange where the other failed to deliver.Thus, even if Islam were a correct (i.e., true) belief system, the two attackers that died would likely not be candidates for the rewards given martyrs.